Top 10 Game Completions of 2024

Hey everyone! I see there are a couple year-end threads created already like the 2024 - Year in Review for Spotify Wrapped-like recaps sent from the large console manufacturers and Steam as well as the Games Beaten 2024 thread just to go over games you beat in the past year. I didn't see one for any kind of top 10 game completions though and seeing as how I made the 2022 top 10 thread I figured I would go ahead and make this one as well. This will be a somewhat cut down version of my top 10 games post on my blog if you wanna check it out! I'll also put some honorable mentions at the bottom too.

10. Vampires Dawn 3 - The Crimson Realm (62h:30m) - Vampires Dawn is a trilogy of old-school style German RPG Maker games. RPG Maker is a game engine that a lot of indie developers use to make games that typically look like old RPGs from the 90s like Final Fantasy. Since the engine is so widely used by indie devs, there are a ton of lesser-known games that use it and most of them that I’ve played are unfortunately pretty samey and not very good. The Vampires Dawn games are an exception, mostly. While not as good as Theia: The Crimson Eclipse (my third favorite game of last year that utilized the same engine), they’re still a cut above many others. The third game was released in 2021, way later than the first two which came out in the early 2000s and are considered cult classics. You play as a group of vampires who reluctantly team up to stop an evil vampire backed by a shadowy organization of magic users known as the Elras from remaking the world in their image. It is a very bloody game as you can probably imagine, much more violent than most RPG Maker games. One of the main characters Valnar was the protagonist of the first two games, and the other two main characters Alaine and Asgar who were also present in the original games and are now fully playable here. Asgar has always been a secondary antagonist in the series as he wants to wipe out humanity altogether and rule over the world as an all-powerful vampire. Valnar and Alaine’s “daughter” Jayna whom they transformed in the ending of a previous game is the evil vampire trying to take over the world that the main characters must stop. Valnar and Alaine feel responsible as her parents and Asgar sees her as an obstacle on his own quest for world domination. However, it turns out a secret organization known as the Elras were using her as a puppet to drain all the power from the vampires and use a stone tablet (also at the end of the previous game) which basically has the power to grant any wish. There are several endings to this game depending on the choices you make. The first two games are free on the developer’s website here. The sound quality and graphics of this game were leagues better than the first two due to how much newer it is. This game came out 16 years after the second one and it shows. I also enjoyed the combat in this one more than the previous games. It had a much more robust party system with many different spell types and combinations. The big letdown for me was the writing. While a lot of this can be boiled down to the game releasing in German and later translated to English, that can’t excuse everything. The writing was very amateurish, with insults and curse words every other sentence like a child using swears for the first time. It really didn’t do the story justice and had me facepalming through most cutscenes. In a long game like this one, the story must be really strong to motivate a player to overcome repetition enough to get to the end. If I wasn’t so stubborn and hadn’t played the original games, I may not have finished it myself. I still enjoyed my time with it, but not as much as the previous entry in the series. Speaking of which…

9. Vampires Dawn II: Ancient Blood (48h:45m) - Not much more can be said about this game that wasn’t covered by Vampires Dawn 3. This one came out all the way back in 2005. Despite the age, it still showed a significant graphical improvement over the first game released in 2002. It had a much more serious tone compared to the third game, and much improved gameplay mechanics over the first game. It struck just the right balance for me. You also had the ability to overlevel and absolutely destroy any enemies you come across which some people don’t like in RPGs, but I love it. I would say if you are interested in trying the series out but aren’t tolerant of some frankly outdated game design, watch a recap of the first game and try out the second. Again, they’re both free so it doesn’t hurt to try them out.

8. Life Is Strange: True Colors (16h:53m) – This is the fourth in the Life is Strange series of games with a heavy focus on story and mostly walking simulator gameplay. Every Life is Strange game I’ve played has always made my top 10 that year and this was no exception. The stories in these games are phenomenal, and even the graphics are becoming quite impressive compared to the roughness of the original. I will say I was skeptical of the main character’s powers after watching the trailer. Being an empath seemed like a much lamer power than time travel or telekinesis from the previous games. Over the course of the game though, her power set expands to include mind-reading and emotional manipulation which I felt was a great way to really open up the story. It was cool how she was able to see what other people were seeing when they experienced strong emotions, like when she was crawling across a log to save a frightened kid and saw the monsters he was imagining ready to pull him into the raging river below. The game stars Alex Chen, a 21-year-old woman who had been separated from her older brother for eight years after their mom died and dad abandoned them. The game starts with them reuniting after all this time and her brother showing her around the city he’s been living in. Unfortunately, her brother is killed in a supposed freak accident involving the mining company that operates nearby at the end of the first chapter, and she has to grapple with living in a new town after her only connection to the town died while also investigating the mining company for any potential wrongdoing. As with all the Life is Strange games, the story goes in an interesting direction and has a very exciting last chapter with a satisfying conclusion. As this series is mainly story focused, I don’t want to spoil any more than that so if this sounds interesting to you, definitely try it out. I still didn’t like it as much as the first game, but it was a big improvement on the second.

7. Lil Gator Game (6h:8m) – As you can see from my completion time, this was a much shorter game than the others on my list. That did not detract from my enjoyment of it. You play as a lil gator (all the characters are anthropomorphic animals) who goes to the park to play imaginary games with his friends. He tries to get his big sister to play with him like the old days but she’s too busy with college work. He thinks if he can make an island-wide role-playing game with his friends, his sister will see how much fun they’re having and join in. I won’t spoil any more the story, but it is fantastic. It’s mostly comedic showing how the kids play together but sprinkles in just the right amount of sad moments to be truly engaging. If you care at all about good stories in games, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.

6. The Messenger (25h:7m) – This was a great 2D platformer game that came out in 2018 but styled just like a game from the 8-bit era of the 80s and early 90s. You play as the titular Messenger, a ninja tasked with delivering a magic scroll across the island to save humanity from a demonic threat that has taken over most of the world. While the story itself is mostly serious, a lot of the writing is actually quite goofy. You come across an otherworldly shopkeeper early on that sells you upgrades but will be more than happy to talk your ear off if you let him. He also breaks the fourth wall a lot by saying things like he’s going to tell you a long story and won’t let you skip dialogue during it or gifting you a rope dart but lamenting that most players will just call it a grappling hook anyway. The platforming is satisfying (for the most part, some of the optional collectibles were a pain to get), the bosses are fun to fight, the music is catchy, and the story is great. I want to get into spoilers to properly express my opinion of this game so if you want to play it, you have my recommendation and can stop reading here. For everyone else who is curious about my full thoughts, keep reading. About halfway through the game, you deliver the magic scroll to the robed figures at the Tower of Time (of which the shopkeeper is a member). Some time travel shenanigans happen, and the robed figures send you 500 years into the future where the game goes from 8-bit to 16-bit (think NES to SNES) and transforms from a simple 2D platformer to a full on metroidvania experience with a large, interconnected map unlike the linear experience up to that point. While the initial reveal is REALLY cool, I felt that the metroidvania elements dragged on for far too long. It’s not helped that I get lost easily, but traveling back and forth across a huge map to find all the collectibles really got tedious by the end. I still overall really enjoyed my time with it, I just felt that the latter half of the game dragged on for far longer than it needed to. Also, the game may be connected to another game in my top 10 list 👀 Keep reading if you want to find out more…

5. Starfield (116h) – I’m going to state up front that my #4 and #5 games are going to be somewhat controversial in their placement. I really struggled on where to put them on this list so in the end I just had to go with how I felt overall while playing them. I don’t think most people will say that Starfield is a better game than The Messenger or Lil Gator Game, and it probably isn’t. I just remember Lil Gator Game being too short and simplistic to rank higher and getting lost having to look up guides all the time in the latter half of The Messenger to the point of frustration. I don’t have these complaints about Starfield. I don’t think there was a single moment where I was getting annoyed with the game. I was generally having a good time with it. Not as high highs or low lows if that makes sense. Starfield is another epic western FPS RPG from Bethesda, the same people who make Elder Scrolls and Fallout. I admit I have a soft spot for those games too, and Skyrim is among my favorite games of all time. As the name suggests, it’s a space-themed RPG where you get your own ship and can travel to different planets in different solar systems across the universe to explore. I’m a bit of a space/sci-fi nerd too which puts a bias in Starfield’s favor. The planets can feel samey after a while and the enemy variety was lacking by the end, but I genuinely enjoyed the story, some of the characters, and the hand-crafted cities you visited for some of the major questlines. I was also so insanely powerful by the end that I was just ripping through enemies no sweat with a minigun and didn’t even have to worry about healing. A lot of people will say that a game being this easy is a letdown and takes out the joy of overcoming a challenge, but as I wrote in my Vampires Dawn II review, overleveling to the point of absurdity to achieve that power fantasy at the end of a long RPG is so satisfying to me. Pick this up if the idea of Fallout in space intrigues you.

4. High on Life (17h:38m) – I can see the pitchforks already on this one. If this makes me lose all credibility and make you not trust my gaming opinions ever again, I understand. High on Life is a sci-fi comedy FPS from Justin Roiland’s former game development studio. Justin Roiland is the guy behind Rick and Morty, and that style of humor is present throughout the entire experience. As such, your enjoyment of this game is heavily dependent on how funny you think Rick and Morty is. If you’re not a fan, you will not like this game. I haven’t seen Rick and Morty yet, but I’ve seen enough clips to know his style of humor and I enjoyed them well enough. This game is not the most technically robust, graphically impressive, or have a deep story and characters. What it does have though is humor, and I could not stop laughing at all the jokes and the absurdity of it all. It’s hard to get comedy right, and I imagine it’s even harder to maintain that comedy for 17 hours, but I think they pulled it off. Like The Messenger, a lot of the characters also broke the fourth wall and commented on common game mechanics. One of the boss fights near the end even has the bad guy trying to pull a Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid moment by reading your hard drive and talking about games you’ve played, but then admits he can’t actually read your hard drive and just assumes you’ve played like 100 hours of Rocket League or something and gives you an embarrassing achievement so your friends laugh at you. As a Metal Gear Solid fan, this really got me and helped move this game up as high on the list as it is. If you’re a fan of Rick and Morty and don’t despise FPS games, you should pick this up. If you don’t like Rick and Morty because the humor doesn’t jive with you, stay far away.

3. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (25h:3m) – I am absolutely in love with my top three games this year. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big Star Wars fan. When I saw footage of this game for the first time, I was so excited that EA was finally making a proper story-based action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe and not just another multiplayer Battlefront game. The only thing I was really worried about was the difficulty. This game is considered a soulslike which basically means “takes inspiration from Dark Souls gameplay”. This usually boils down to having more demanding, precise combat and dropping experience when you die that you must run back and get but disappears forever if you die again. I’ve never tried the Dark Souls games solely because they’re marketed as having high difficulty which is not something I typically gravitate towards. I have played a couple 2D soulslikes (Titan Souls and Moonscars) that I struggled with but eventually beat, but I know those are a different beast than 3D. Thankfully I was able to overcome the difficulty and ended up really liking the combat. There are also difficulty options to tone it down for a more standard gaming experience. I played on Jedi Master which is the second highest difficulty, and I felt it provided a satisfying challenge. For those with a least a little bit of Star Wars knowledge, this game take place between Episodes III and IV where most Jedi were wiped out, the Sith took over the government and transformed the republic into an empire, and any surviving Jedi have gone on the run or into hiding. One such person is the main character Cal Kestis who was just a young padawan when he lost his master to order 66 and spent several years lying low as a scrapper at an Empire staryard. One day his scrapper friend almost dies falling off a ledge and Cal uses his force powers to save him which draws the attention of the Empire thus forcing him to go on the run. Along the way he makes some unlikely allies, deals some key blows to the Empire, and learns what it takes to become a Jedi Knight. I thought everything about this game was great: the graphics, story, characters, combat, sound, everything. Perhaps even more exciting is that I can now officially say I’ve beaten a 3D soulslike and feel more confident that I can tackle some of the others in my backlog. If you like Star Wars and are at least somewhat competent with third-person action games, I can highly recommend this one.

2. Sea of Stars (53h:19m) – So how do you top a Star Wars game that has everything a Star Wars fan has been wanting for years? By having an even better story, even more interesting environments, even bigger cast of great characters, and a more unique art style. Having turn-based combat helped too. I love turn-based combat, and I feel like we don’t see that very often nowadays. This is a fantasy RPG that takes place in a land where magic can be wielded by solstice warriors which are people born on the day of a solstice. Our main characters are the lunar magic girl Valere born on the winter solstice, the solar magic guy Zale born on the summer solstice, and their best friend Garl who is fiercely loyal and a great cook but has no magic of his own. You’re tasked by the headmaster of the magic school to defeat the last Dweller (super powered creations of the big bad guy known as the Fleshmancer) which will finally bring about eternal peace. I don’t want to spoil the game too much because it is fantastic and everyone should play it, but something goes wrong, and a straightforward mission turns into an epic world-saving adventure full of twists and turns. Did I mention that this game is also a distant prequel to The Messenger? Because it is, and finding out the tragic backstory of some of the characters from that game in this one made the story of The Messenger even better. And if you play this game and care at all about the characters in it but don’t usually go for all the collectibles and side quests, I implore you to reconsider for this one. The True Ending is really something special. If there’s one criticism I can think of for this game, it’s that the combat can become simple and repetitive after a while. I did not die a single time in this game. Once you figure out what the strongest moves are and the best way to go about preventing enemies from attacking, it becomes relatively easy. Again, some people will say the lack of overcoming a challenge removes a lot of joy out of beating a game, but I didn’t mind it. Some of the bosses still required strategic thinking to overcome, especially in the endgame. Seriously, everyone who plays video games owes it to themselves to try this one.

1. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (54h:8m) – I flipflopped for a while on which game deserved my game of the year. I would almost say it’s a tie between Jedi: Survivor and Sea of Stars but one must come out on top so I awarded it to this one. This is a sequel to Fallen Order and it does the typical sequel thing of doing everything the first game did but bigger and better. Everything I said about Fallen Order is true here. What really sold me was the improved combat mechanics. It introduces two big changes that elevated it above the first game: expanded Force powers and lightsaber stances. The first time I “convinced” a Stormtrooper to attack his allies to draw their attention away from me, I was like “Wow, that was cool! I can’t believe this wasn’t in the first game!” Hindsight is 20/20 of course but seriously, it seemed so effortlessly intuitive and useful that I questioned why it wasn’t an option from the beginning. The biggest change however was the different lightsaber stances. In the first game, you mostly only had a single blade stance. In Jedi: Survivor, you had the normal stance but also a heavy stance, fast double-bladed stance, blaster stance, etc. Different stances could be useful depending on which enemies you were fighting, and you can designate two to switch between at any given time. I found the heavy stance to be the best for me for normal enemies after practicing with it, but then switched to the blaster stance to fight some of the optional bosses near the end when I wanted to keep my distance. It kept the combat fresh and engaging. I liked Cal’s character arc in this game too, and I can’t wait to see how they wrap it up in the third game. Maybe even have him show up in something live action? Please Disney, make it happen! If you played Fallen Order and want more of that but even better, or if you’re just a big Star Wars fan like me, I recommend this game. The biggest criticism I can give is that the performance was not great. I played on PC with the RTX 3080 and an admittedly aging i7-6700K and while it was fine for the most part, there were times when the game would stutter like in cutscenes or when loading in assets for a new area. A performance patch came out a few months ago that supposedly improved a lot of issues so your mileage may vary. The in-game map can also be confusing to navigate if you’re trying to find all the collectibles but that’s optional so I can’t knock the game too much for that. It was somewhat confusing to find all the collectibles in Sea of Stars too. As for which game is better between this and Sea of Stars, I think it comes down to what you’re looking for out of a game. If you’re a Star Wars/sci-fi fan, like super realistic AAA graphics, or prefer more challenging soulslike combat, you’ll probably like Jedi: Survivor more. If you prefer a fantasy setting with charming pixel art and turn-based combat, you’ll probably like Sea of Stars more. Either way, they’re both great games well worth picking up.

I also want to take the time to go over some honorable mentions as well, and there are quite a few here. These were games that I either enjoyed but didn’t quite make the top 10 or games that maybe weren’t for me, but I can acknowledge that they are well made and other will like them more. I tried to keep this section shorter but I played so many good games this year and just had to shout them out. I’ve sorted this list by completion date oldest to newest.

Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (4h:30m) – This is a trilogy of super short but charming mystery games where you play a frog (again in a world full of anthropomorphic animals) who is sent out to solve ridiculous mysteries such as spooky ghost noises on an island or decorations that have been vandalized right before a parade. The games are kid friendly and there is very little challenge in them. The writing is hilarious, and I was always looking forward to every interaction with the locals. I deemed the games too short and simplistic to make a big enough impression to make my top 10 but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

Amnesia: The Bunker (10h:16m) – The previous Amnesia game Rebirth made my #1 spot back in 2021, so it was disappointing that the new entry didn’t make the top 10 at all. It was also a very different game from its predecessor and one I wasn’t super fond of. This is the fourth in a series of loosely connected horror games. Unlike Rebirth, which was a more linear adventure horror game, The Bunker tried to go for one large map with a sort of metroidvania element where you unlocked different areas using different tools over the course of the game. Instead of a variety of monsters to contend with, there was only one monster chasing you which was a bit lackluster. It also doesn’t help that I get lost easily and it was very easy to get lost in this game. Still, I had some fun playing through it with a friend and can see that it’s a good game, just not the best game for me.

As Dusk Falls (7h:9m) – This is a story-driven game with many decisions creating branching paths similar to Quantic Dream games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human. It has a unique art style with 2D characters that looked hand-drawn in 3D environments. Characters can live or die based on your choices so there are several different endings to the story as a result. Unfortunately, I made a lot of poor choices that got characters I liked killed. At the end of each chapter, you can see every branching path the game could’ve taken with the decisions that lead there so you can replay certain chapters to get new endings. As a Game Pass game, I only had time to go through one path, so I had to live with the choices I made for better or worse. One of the coolest features was the ability for up to eight players to play simultaneously by voting on every decision and getting three vetoes per chapter if there was a decision you felt particularly strongly about. This was perfect for playing through with a friend, but with a dark story, I’m not sure how popular it would be at parties. Pick this up if you don’t mind a game that is all story and little gameplay.

Jusant (8h:41m) – This was a cool little climbing game from the original developers of Life is Strange. It is a completely voiceless game that utilizes environmental storytelling with some optional journal entries you can stumble across. You play as someone who has just crossed a large lifeless desert and spends the game climbing a huge mountain in search of where all the water in the world went. You find out over the course of the game that the desert used to be an ocean and some years ago it stopped raining, causing the ocean to gradually dry up. The many people that lived on the mountain decided to either climb up it to capture the sky whales that they believe stole the water for themselves or climb down to cross the desert to see if it rains elsewhere. The gameplay consists of utilizing different grapple points with your trusty rope and managing your stamina to climb higher and higher up the mountain. There was no way to die in this game, so it was all about piecing together how to accomplish each section of the climb while figuring out what happened to the world. I really liked this game and would probably put it at #11 on my list if I were to expand it. Bonus points, you also get to travel with a super cute blobby animal companion☺️

Scorn (6h:44m) – This is another horror game that wasn’t really for me but that I think was made well. It takes heavy inspiration from artist H.R. Giger’s works which are known for blending biology with machines in disturbing ways, and boy was this game disturbing. I’m squeamish so I found it difficult at times to play this, but it absolutely nailed what it was going for. You play another voiceless protagonist who is just another one of the abominations (albeit a more intelligent one) trudging through a bleak and empty world solving puzzles in an attempt to join the collective consciousness of all who managed to ascend and leave the physical world behind. The environments are quite detailed, the puzzles are fun to solve, and the combat introduced partway through is serviceable. If this sounds interesting to you, make sure to look up some screenshots to see if you’ll be able to stomach it before choosing to dive in.

Monument Valley 2 (2h:5m) – A short and sweet puzzle game I got for my phone years ago. I usually don’t vibe with puzzle games because I’m bad at them. The puzzles in this game though were fairly simple, and the art style is gorgeous. The game revolves around perspective and optical illusions. Imagine trying to navigate an M.C. Escher drawing with pretty colors and a bittersweet story and you’re most of the way there.

Katja’s Abyss: Tactics (5h:55m) – An interesting mash-up of Minesweeper and turn-based strategy. I’ve always loved Minesweeper so seeing it expanded into a tactics game with a story and everything was really cool. You can scan the environment to see the numbers that indicate how many mines (or Nodes in this case) are touching that space and mark them accordingly. You also control different units that each have two different forms they can take such as a drill to mine safe areas/dispose of Nodes or a fighter to fight back the alien bugs in the mines but can also turn into an artillery unit to shoot them from a distance. The campaign was only eight levels so it was pretty short but they were all fun. I’ve only seen a couple games using the Minesweeper formula so this one definitely stood out to me. I only hope other developers take the concept and run with it.

Time Bandit (9h:28m) – A politics-heavy idle/stealth game about the evils of the rich and big corporations. Your goal is to sneak time crystals out of your employers’ mining operation and into the hands of the resistance to take back power from the big wigs and stop their exploitation of the common worker. The interesting hook here is that the in-game time corresponds to real-world time so if you play the game at 9PM, the in-game time will also be 9PM and it will be dark out. Your “shift” hours change every day so if you play when you’re off shift, you’ll have to sneak around the heavier robot patrol presence. If you set up your forklift to move a box out of the way to clear a path, it will take 30 real-world minutes to complete. Your energy also drains slowly so you have to send your character to bed for several real-world hours to fully recharge. As a result, the game is only meant to be played for a few minutes at a time and then closed while your tasks complete. Some of the NPCs would make remarks about the time, day of the week, or the weather which made it feel more connected to real life. The game takes heavy inspiration from the first Metal Gear Solid game so if that sounds interesting to you, give it a shot. My biggest gripe was the ending which suddenly cut to a “To be continued” screen just as I felt it was ramping up. Hopefully the story is in fact continued at some point.

I'll list the top 3 games I got the most enjoyment from every month in 2024, I already reviewed all the games I played, replays also will not count, top 10s are hard to do for me, so I'll do this:

January:

Daymare 1994, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, HROT

Febuary:

Robocop Rogue City, Metal Arms a Glitch in the System, Quake II: Call of the Machine

March:

Shadow Man Remastered, Hi-Fi Rush, Star Wars Dark Forces

April:

Tomb Raider 1996, Penny's Big Breakway, Resistance Retribution(Infected Mode)

May:

Mighty Goose, Army of Two the 40th Day, Medal of Honor Rising Sun

June:

Phantom Fury, Urban Reign, Tormented Souls

July:

Freedom Planet 2, Tomb Raider 2, Tekken 8

August:

007 Nightfire, Crow Country, Mayhem Brawler

September:

Space Marine 2, Gori's Cuddley Carnage, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

October:

A King's Tale: FF15, MGS Ghost Babel, Mister Mosquito

November:

House of the Deadoverkill, Resident Evil: Survivor, Star Wars Outlaws

December:

Star Wars Jedi Survivor, El Paso, Everywhere, Sprwal or Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City Echo Six Expansion

I played a ton of great games this year, 9 of which broke into my top 15 games of all time. Every time I write my top 3 from 2024 it's slightly different mostly because it's tough to keep track of everything I played, so this list is somewhat loosely ordered.

10. Street Fighter 6 (9/10) - Such a fantastic game for beginners, if it weren't for the terrible microtransactions it would be a 10/10.

9. Doom Eternal (9.5/10) - Better in many ways than 2016, but the overall quality is more inconsistent, especially in the DLC.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (9.5/10) - A very strong return to 2D Zelda from Nintendo. It is also probably the cutest game I have ever played.

7. Satisfactory (9.5/10) - This is a very addicting game, very good.

6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (9.5/10) - The immersion and large, densely packed world that Skyrim offers in incredible.

5. Cyberpunk 2077 (9.5/10) - One of the most beautiful games I've ever played, visually and story-wise.

4. Doom 2016 (10/10) - A very solid shooter game, one of the best of it's genre.

3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (10/10) - One of the best 3D platformers ever made.

2. Rise of the Tomb Raider (10/10) - This one was a bit of a surprise to me, everything from the platforming to the combat is nearly perfect in this game.

1. Baldur's Gate 3 (10/10) - This game is just a masterpiece, I did probably 4 different playthroughs and I still feel like I could do another one right now if I had the time.

A very honorable mention to Stardew Valley which was my most played game of 2024. But I technically did not complete it this year so I won't count it as eligible, if I had completed it, it would be in the #1 spot.

Other honorable mentions: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Helldivers 2, and Doom 1993.

I've said it many times but this year has not been ideal for me in terms of life, especially when it comes to gaming. Most of the games I played were crap or underwhelming and there were few very memorable, worthy games I truly enjoyed or loved or remembered. I'll try my best to showcase what is Top 10 material but some of it is VERY lower rated compared to other users scores.

10. Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition

One of two games that is like a Doom Eternal and Titanfall 2 blend on the list, but this is by far the one I would say play after the other Doom/Titanfall-like game I recommend later on. The story is one of the best in an FPS Game in recent memory, the voice acting is great and the comedy certainly does work. They very much improved Lo Wang as a character since in the 2013 game I didn't like him at all, but there's tons of laughs and the graphics are pretty stellar and give the game they scope they need despite it's linearity. Gameplay is basically Doom Eternal but easier, but the traversal is more like Titanfall 2 by using a grappling hook to swing around everywhere. And the finishers are bloody and fun and not redundant at all since the enemy variety is so stacked. I still don't like the non-organic locked in arena fighting that this series popularized in FPS games, but this is well worth playing. It's funny, engaging and knows how to have fun with itself.

9. Doom 64

This is probably the only Doom game I haven't played and for good reason. The original N64 version is so devoid of any lighting that you have to turn your TV brightness all the way to the maximum setting in order to see anything. Thankfully, the Nightdive Remaster fixes this making it MUCH more playable. The only thing I don't like about Nightdive's games that I've tried out is that they're maybe a BIT too faithful to how the game's were back then. Instead of adding any QOL features, they basically just ported the game over to PC without being unable to see anything. This seems to be a common complaint I'm noticing from reviews on Steam as well for some Nightdive titles. Thankfully, the game is pretty great. It's Doom Re-Established for the 32/64 Bit Era with cool new redesigns of enemies, overhauled sound design, interesting maps with cool puzzles, guns that are overall excellent, this is a great title. My only other complaint is that the game doesn't tell you that you can make the final boss easier by doing secret levels, which would have been much appreciated and caused less frustration knowing that these are basically mandatory, but the game is beatable.

8. Cat Quest

This was recommended throughout the year by a couple people to me on the site and I didn't expect much, but this is a very enjoyable game. It's a parody of RPGs with a witty sidekick who comments on basically all the cliches and tropes of game design and story in these games. And thankfully, it can be pretty funny too. One of the things that surprised me the most is the music, it honestly sounds super professionally crafted with an epic adventurous tone throughout the game. The graphics leave a lot to be desired, but the game itself shines with it's quests, characters and BIG twist at the end of the game. I got the platinum trophy on this one, although it was a bit tedious to get it. Don't have much to say here!

7. Donkey Kong Land III

A series I binged last month, but the third game is the one that shines the most. It gets rid of all the gimmicky stupid levels from the previous DKL games and manages to be the best designed, best playing, best controlling game in the trilogy. The graphics are certainly worse than DKL2, but the game is a blast to play from start to finish. I've been seriously enjoying coming back to these old Game Boy games so I'll have to try out more of them. These might be just "We Have DKC at Home." but this is still a worthy title and one of the better platformers I played this year.

6. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

While I loved Super Mario Land for it's excellent music and surprisingly good controls for a game that looks so microscopic, the sequel barely inches it out by having improved graphics and a lot more gameplay than the last one. I think it's safe to say that this is one of the staples of the Game Boy system and I would highly recommend playing both games, but SML2 just has a lot more character to it in general.

5. 420BLAZEIT2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition

No this is not a joke and it's not two jokes. 1. Yes this is the actual title of the game. And yes, this game rocks. This is one of the most fresh and original FPS Games I've played in years. Even though it's a sequel to a 15 Minute joke game, the developers are bursting with ideas and creativity. I seriously hope they go legit, but if this proves anything they can craft some super surreal and amazing FPS games. A love letter to 2010's meme culture where there are no dead memes, only good memeories of the past. The game can go from visiting a bootleg Willy Wonka Experience, to kicking zombies while on a toilet doing your thing, to having a rail shooter segment, to then going into multiple prison escapes and finally, entering the Memeverse to save all memes on the internet. This is crazy and physically painful, the latter being due to all the intense flashing lights and colors. I swear to god, I didn't think I should be playing this at all and DON'T PLAY THIS IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO FLASHING LIGHTS AND COLORS! But, this game manages to be awesome. The guns have great weight and feel to them, the graphics while basic are perfect for the entire joke of the game, the Brostep music soundtrack is tonally appropriate, there's so much variety, so much uniqueness, this has to be commended for being one of the most original games in years. I highly recommend it, but again, be warned that you may have eye aching while playing this.

4. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

This was groundbreaking for it's focus on narrative in an old school shooter and this is before Half-Life came out a year later! This is insane to think about because Half-Life defined story driven FPS games, but Lucasarts did it all the way back in 97! This is an extremely immersive game (probably the most immersive I've played this year) with it's lovable late 90's 3D Graphics, excellent variety of weapons with blasters that feel unique. The lightsaber is also great and thankfully, it's not the ideal situation for every combat encounter. The game's story and characters are where it's at, told through well aged FMV cutscenes with a genuine sense of camp and fun to it. This is a truly impressive title and it surely made a huge impression on everyone that played it back then. Kyle Katarn is probably character of the year for me.

3. Half-Life: Uplink

Despite this being just a demo for the game, it's a truly fantastic demo. It has everything I love about Half-Life in general from the difficulty, weapons, graphics, voice acting, gunplay, puzzles, it's just awesome. It's literally included with Half-Life now so if you didn't get a chance to play it you should!

2. Turbo Overkill

My worries after a troubled Early Access release have been squashed thankfully. This is the closest adrenaline rush I've felt since Doom Eternal and this is the best Boomer Shooter in recent years. I'm not a fan of the obnoxious amount of F-Bombs everyone drops and I do think it's too edgy for it's own good, but this felt fresh and had a bunch of ideas that were really well done. It's extremely fast paced and the game never seems to lose energy, it keeps going and going until a massive showdown at the end. The bosses are really inventive and the gameplay is like Doom Eternal and Titanfall 2 on crack. Trust me, this game is crazy fast paced and if you loved any of those games you're surely to love this. I'm genuinely impressed with how the game turned out because I had numerous problems with the EA build when it first came out. But no, it's just as good as everyone has said. I still think DUSK is a much better and more important game in this genre, but this is still some of the most fun I've had all year.

1. Cat Quest II

This game comes close to being a masterpiece. While I liked the first game a lot, this sequel blows it out of the water. Everything has been improved upon basically. Graphics, gameplay, character building, character development, design, music, sound, story, everything. The game has an astonishing mind blowing twist that I absolutely did not see coming and I seriously loved everything about it. I'm super impressed with how this series was finding an identity by the second game. This series has so far been awesome and I'll see how Cat Quest III turns out!

And that's all! Happy new year everyone! Hopefully this year will be MUCH better for gaming for me.

I only played 17 games this year, so I don't have many to choose from, but I'll still be able to come up with a decent list. I've already posted my reviews for each game, so for this thread, I will give an abbreviated and revised version for each game.

10. Kingdom Rush - 18h 42m - 7/10
Kingdom Rush is a game I was never able to beat when I was younger due to the difficulty. But when I returned to give the game another shot this year, not only was the difficulty manageable but I was also able to appreciate the strategic depth the game offers. In which towers to buy, which upgrades to get and where to place your troops. It hooked me more than I thought it would at first and I ended up doing most of the optional content as well. The one sticking point was that the difficulty of the last two optional levels was absurdly difficult, even amongst the optional levels. Although there was always the option of lowering the difficulty, so I can't discredit the game that much.

9. Chants of Sennaar - 12h 18m - 7/10
Chants of Sennaar is a fun unique puzzle game. It uses a similar structure to Obra Dinn where it only tells you the answer after getting multiple correct. The system works just as well as it does in that game. The couple of times I got stuck were mostly due to my stupidity, although there was one time when I didn't know I could interact with an object. That was the one solution I had to look up because I was completely stuck. The story builds up throughout the game with hints being left around. Near the end it nicely falls into place, although some questions were left unanswered which I would've liked answers to.

8. Stray - 7h 24m - 8/10
Stray has immaculate vibes and it nails the feel of playing from a cat's perspective. Everything is huge, but you can climb and clamber all over the place. This gives a sense of freedom in the more non-linear areas which I enjoyed the most. I just wish there were more of them as there are really only two, while the rest of the game's areas are linear. The story also has some good twists that I wasn't expecting and a unique storytelling dynamic considering the cat can't talk.

7. Outer Wilds - 27h 24m - 8/10
Outer Wilds is a great non-linear exploration game. It does it in a way that the player doesn't get lost or confused due to everything being tracked in the ship log. It also reduces the burden on the player by not forcing them to remember all the crucial details. I got into a loop where I would do just one more loop so I could explore the new lead that opened up or maybe that other thing I hadn't explored yet. The one part where it stumbles a bit is with the DLC which has some downright frustrating sections. When a puzzle is frustrating your critical thinking skills are hindered which makes it harder to solve the puzzles, which doesn't help either. However, the stories for both the main game and the DLC keep the player invested as you slowly unravel them. They are also quite tragic in hindsight once you figure everything out.

6. Azure Reflections - 15h 6m - 8/10
Azure Reflections has a good base difficulty level while still allowing for harder difficulties for more experienced players. You can use the continues or you can choose to do a 1cc run. On top of that, the game has even more replay value due to the additional modes available such as ascetic mode which gives bosses 2 new attacks each. Even if you do poorly, no run is wasted because you're always earning points that you can spend on accessories which improve your character. I ended up 1cc'ing the story extra and boss rush with every character on normal mode because I became way more invested in the game than I at first thought I would.

5. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - 125h 22m - 8/10
Three Houses has a great story and characters. Even the characters that at first I didn't like that much, grew on me as I got through their supports. The story balances both its halves well, with the first half being focused on mystery while the second half has you working towards a clear goal. The music in Three Houses is also stellar with multiple fantastic tracks I'm still listening to. The gameplay has a lot of strategic depth in the battles you do and how you spend your time. It also lessened the stress I felt while playing Awakening due to the turn wheel system, although they went a bit too far in the opposite direction since I never ran out of turn wheels and never lost a single unit. This defeats the point of a perma death system since it negates the player-driven stories that can result from losing units. Even though I liked the story, the fact that the first half of the game remains the same is a huge hurdle towards doing a replay of the game.

4. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - 67h 56m - 9/10
Sparks of Hope improves upon its predecessor in almost every way. There are no more restrictions on which characters you can bring into battle and the removal of the grid-based movement allows you to pull off more interesting attack combos. This strategic depth is supplemented by the status elements being tied to sparks instead of character-specific weapons. The worlds are also more unique as well as the story, which results in overall a more exciting experience. I do have a few minor gripes like not being able to tweak the difficulty exactly and there not being a real punishment for playing poorly like there was in the first game. The Last Spark Hunter and Rayman in the Phantom Show are both great DLCs that bring new and interesting ideas to the table. Whatever you do however, do NOT play the Tower of Doooom DLC, it's easily the worst thing I've ever played and I want the time I spent on it back.

3. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - 15h 27m - 9/10
Ghost Trick has the same amount of twists that a regular Ace Attorney game does, except they're all condensed into a much shorter playtime, which makes it that much better. It gets to the point where there's a plot twist in almost every chapter. The puzzles are fun enough, it's interesting to see what chain reaction results in people's deaths. However, I did get stuck once and there was one section that was a bit tedious. The music in Ghost Trick is just as good as that in the Ace Attorney series which it is closely related to.

Note: I view P4G and P3R nearly equally, so my ranking could change in the future.
2. Persona 4 Golden - 114h 30m - 9/10
P4G has a friendlier atmosphere compared to P3 and P5, which I welcome. I believe it has the strongest cast out of the three latest Persona games and most of the social links are great as well. I really liked the murder mystery aspect of the story and it kept the story engaging the whole way through even though I was spoiled on the culprit. The music was also great which is a given for a Persona game and I felt like the type of music P4 had vibed with me. The biggest weakness that P4 has are related to it's gameplay. Specifically the dungeon that was added in golden which goes against principles a JRPG should strive for and the scene where you can get the bad endings which was very frustrating, just failing over and over.

1. Persona 3 Reload - 108h 48m - 9/10
P3R in contrast to P4G is nearly the opposite. It has great gameplay with a bunch of mechanics you can use to your advantage such as passing your turn to your party members and theurgies. Not to say that the story isn't bad. It effectively highlights its main message of death the entire way through, which also makes its way to a majority of the social links. The problem with the story is that the pacing is bad, in the first half of the game, there isn't all that much development in the overarching narrative and then all of it is condensed in the last few months of the game. The villains apart from the main one also feel a bit lackluster and not enough like a threat. Due to being the first game to have them, P3's social links are also the weakest overall, with multiple bad and mediocre ones. The music still slaps like always though.

I played so many great games in 2024 that it's quite hard to rank them into my top 10. But anyways, here’s what I came up with:

10. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 (8/10) - A very beautiful cinematic game, but quite short compared to the first title. I still enjoyed my time with it, and I think it deserves to be in my top 10.

9. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (9/10) - The story is great, but it isn’t as good as Automata. It does deserve to be on my list because I enjoyed every second of playing it, despite hating the weapon grinding.

8. Silent Hill 2 (9/10) - A fantastic remake, and I love every second of it. This is probably my favorite horror game of 2024.

7. Persona 3 Reload (9/10) - Another fantastic remake, especially since I just recently played P3P back in 2023. Lots of good QoL changes that make this a great JRPG title (also, the story is more to my liking compared to other Persona games).

6. Lies of P (10/10) - My Bloodborne-esque title before playing the actual Bloodborne game. Such a fantastic Souls-like experience with amazing level design and gameplay.

5. Bloodborne (10/10) - The actual Bloodborne that made it to my top 5. Despite being a very old game, it surprised me with its boss designs, levels, and gameplay. This game definitely deserves a remaster of some kind.

4. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (10/10) - Simple and clean. The first game introduced me to a whole new world, and I’m hooked.

3. Final Fantasy XVI (10/10) - I really like this game and how Final Fantasy became more action-focused in this title. The story is pretty decent as well, but that intro prologue section was just phenomenal.

2. Black Myth: Wukong (10/10) - Oh boy, I thought this one was just going to be all hype, but it proved me wrong. The game is very action-packed and introduces a lot of mechanics and areas that make me feel like I’m truly on a journey as Wukong. There’s also a clear story and lots of Chinese mythology being shown, which added to the immersion. An amazing game!

1. Metaphor: ReFantazio (10/10) - And here it is, my favorite of the year. Metaphor not only provided me a fantastic adventure but also gave me wonderful characters. The soundtrack, story, and gameplay are all amazing. This game really surprised me by giving me everything I want in a JRPG.

DLC is not included in my list, so for this one:

? Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (10/10) - I really liked the base game, so it was obvious I would like the DLC. It’s a great experience, but I don’t think I can add it to my top 10 just to be fair since I already put Elden Ring in my top 10 two years ago.

For the game that didn't make the cut:

Baldur's Gate 3 (10/10) - If I had completed this before New Year, it would have been my #1 game. I guess this will be going into my 2025 top 10 unless another game beats it.

I've completed 7 games and 1 DLC in 2024.

8. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
7. Sheepy: A Short Adventure
6. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Replay)
5. ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights
4. Pentiment
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II
2. Rogue Trader: Void Shadows (DLC)
1. Hollow Knight (Replay)

All of these were a good time though. I'm quick to retire games that I don't enjoy, so any game I complete is usually well worth it.

I did not finish Rogue Trader in 2024, in spite of putting ~ 110 hours into it. If I had completed it, it would have been my number 3 spot (the DLC is better than the base game), I guess. This way it might make my top 1 in 2025, who knows.

Other games that I put quite a few hours into but didn't complete are:
Skyrim (Replay), Morrowind (Replay), Medieval Dynasty, Digital Combat Simulator

10 – Infernax | PS5 | 85%
Of my top 20 games this year, 20% of them are pixel platformers in a fantasy setting. I love how bombastic and hammy they are, but I think what makes Infernax stand above the rest is its morality system and how far its art goes to convey the insidious presence throughout the world. Almost all of these games (e.g. Shovel Knight and Bloodstained) have dark or high fantasy tones, but lean towards comedy or paying homage to Castlevania. Infernax feels like something new and it is absolutely disgusting with its artwork and banging with its music. While the player’s goals might not be the clearest from time to time, the Metroidvania elements woven throughout the gameplay never let you stay lost for long.

9 – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom | Nintendo Switch | 85%
Love that Zelda finally gets to be a hero, and I quickly found that there was a lot of freedom in how I approached exploration and combat. This toybox design following Link’s Awakening is so charming, especially paired with this game’s soundtrack and dramatic character animations. While I wish this game success so we have future opportunities to play as Zelda, I did feel like some of the echoes were a little redundant, and simultaneously were there too many that I had to scroll through. Tri is also not the easiest to aim, but the game is so fun that I didn’t mind throughout.

8 – Hitman: World of Assassination | PS5 | 85%
I love how silly this game is for a spy thriller about an coldhearted assassin who’s either the best in the world or the sloppiest fuck-up who’s ever picked up a can of tomato sauce. It’s dumb but owns it and its voice acting is so consistently stilted that I can’t help but laugh whenever I play. While its story isn’t something I follow with tremendous care, I do love its level and environment design, as well as the community missions where you have to kill everyone on the map. Just talking about it now gives me the itch to play again.

7 – Hardspace: Shipbreaker | PS5 | 85%
This game is surprisingly a joy to play for me that I played it twice. Salvaging in zero-gravity while you fight for your labor union is a fun concept, and I love the final mission where you have to destroy everything. I felt like the narrative conflict was resolved too quickly in the end, but perhaps that’s the point, if we all gathered together and demanded better from the bourgeoisie we could not just survive but live rather quickly? Otherwise, this game is not without redundancy and poor optimization, as well as the inability to skip cutscenes on replays.

6 – Stardew Valley | Mac | 90%
Felt more engaged with Stardew Valley even after all this time, and while I initially didn’t love the looming “Grandpa’s Evaluation” at the end of Year 2, it did make me push to optimize throughout my entire playthrough. I enjoyed designing my farm and the social aspects of the game up until my character got married. It feels like there’s not enough to do with your spouse other than have kids, and it feels like a missed opportunity to have more than 6 dialog options with them for the rest of the game. Perhaps this is more prevalent because you end up seeing your spouse every day, but I think after the spring of Year 2 this game does lose some steam. If you enjoy managing tasks and cute pixel art, though, Stardew Valley is always a great bet.

5 – Demon’s Souls | PS5 | 90%
It’s clunky but I was an awesome wizard who took down the final boss in 20 hits, so I really don’t mind how not fun moving around felt. Once it clicked for me maybe 3 hours in, I could feel myself becoming one of those From Software shills. But beyond the power fantasy of becoming Dr. Strange was the environmental storytelling. This game is dirty and gross and run-down but it has some of the best-looking environments on the Playstation 5. It is a treat to experience, and I’m glad I found the patience to pick this up.

4 – ABZÛ | Nintendo Switch | 90%
I played this in one sitting but felt the deep love for the ocean that I feel when I go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is charming and tear-jerking and its wordless story of learning to live as part of nature rather than extract from it hits hard with an impending climate crisis on our hands. I’ll have to pick it up in a few years so I can play it again for the first time.

3 – Cocoon | PS5 | 95%
What a trip, this game makes you feel like you’re solving a Rubik’s cube in zero-gravity. Its visuals, logical puzzle design, sound design, and score are some of the best out there. Everything is fractal and alien and kind of disgusting, but it’s almost as if high fantasy was science fiction. I had to keep playing once I got started. Its abstract story is told without words, but in nearly every aspect I could feel the hard work of all the developers who worked on this game. The tedium of backtracking and solving puzzles did wear on me eventually, as did some of the un-readability of the environment design, but Cocoon definitely stole a spot in my top 10 for the year at the last minute.

2 – Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door | Nintendo Switch | 95%
I’ve been waiting for this game for over a decade, and I crushed it in 25 hours. Was it worth it, to get a glimpse of my childhood in an improved format? Yes, because it was handled with so much love, care, and respect for the source material that I was somehow transported to 2005 to play it once again. I love this series and have deep respect for the team that remade this game into a new experience for the Switch. They made it such a seamless experience that you never have to look anything up, and you’re never lost for long. I’ll probably pick it up for another round sometime in the new year.

1 – Baldur's Gate 3 | PS5 | 95%
I’ve spent about 150 hours on two runs with this game. It’s amazing and if you were someone in 2023 claiming that you’d never heard of this game/why did it win GOTY that says more about you than Baldur’s Gate. Some of the best storytelling, themes, and voice acting in the industry, and I’m excited now to play it again in the future.

All games were played in the Playstation 5.

10. Soundfall / Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (7.5/10) - Soundfall have a great concept! It's essentially a rhythm/action RPG hybrid game with a isometric camera. The gameplay is really good and some songs are amazing. And also has couch co-op! Sadly, the progression of the game is barely nonexistent and despite having lot of levels (and songs), the actual level design was really repetitive, sucking the life of a game that could easily be a 9/10 from gameplay alone. About Rift Apart, despite being visually impressive, I did not feel that the game pulled me anything that me feel better or smart that I could've figured out something. Despite having variety in guns, it was just that. Shooting.

9. God of War: Ragnarok - Valhalla (8.5/10) - Great DLC for a full-fledged game already. I really enjoyed the idea and having some throwbacks to the old games makes you nostalgic. However, the roguelike aspect (the varity of loot, level design, combat encounters , etc) kinda of dies 80% through, and doing the same thing over and over without that variety sucked the fun out of the game. Gladly I finished the game soon after. Really powerful and meaningful message at the end - not only for the main character but to all of us that struggle within ourselves.

8. Rollerdrome (8.5/10) - Tony Hawk + Guns. What's there not to like? It's great, it's short, it's challenging. I love how the game forces you to learn to play how it meant to be. It's just makes you enter in a zone.

7. Diablo 4 (8.5/10) - Not much to say. Top 5 couch co-op campaign of all time, it was a blast to play with my girlfriend. She loved necromancer as the minions did all the job for her. Gameplay is really good, the story keeps you interested. The onky bad was the endgame. There was nothing interesting to do after you had all your skills and complete the campaign. It was before the DLC, so it might have gotten better.

6. A Hat in Time (9.0/10) - Great indie platformer! Great humor, great levels, great physics, great gameplay. It takes as longs as you think it will. Surprisingly has a co-op mode as well. It's clunky, but it helps a struggling player - like a 7-year old kid :P

5. Tunic (9.5/10) - One of the surprises I played this year. I knew it was well-regarded, though I couldn't imagine why. Now I know and recommend wholeheartedly for everyone that likes adventure games and even puzzle games - especially towards the ending. The idea that almost everything is available from the get go and you only to learn about it looting the game manual pages makes for a extraordinary game. Amazing idea that it's incredible it haven't been copied yet.

4. Tinykin (10/10) - Maybe not that know as some other games on the list, however, it does pack a punch. Despite the simple story, it has an amazing movement. Using the skate (or soap? Couldn't remember) around was delightful. Combined with using the tinykin powers, looting more tinykin and reaching even further in some awesome level design, you almost try to get 100% of "coins" without noticing. It's really enthralling.

3. Blasphemous 2 (10/10) - One of the best metroidvania of recent years, it improves on everything the first one had that it was kinda frustrating - the parry, distance between checkpoints, OHKO spikes - and adds a lot of variety in gameplay, especially with 3 weapons - each of them with their own skill tree (with a recent free update, even one more). Great level design, amazing bosses with their own visuals and their unique characteristics. Serviceable map, great spanish VA that elevates everything to a 10/10. Really, really, really good metroidvania. And barely last 20 hours!

2. Astro Bot (10/10) - There's not much to say. It's Astro Bot. It's great, it's charming. Maybe it needed more hardcore levels for me to find it even more perfect than it is. If it had 2 hours more of obligatory content, I would have dropped it though. It has the right length time.

1. Nine Sols (10/10) - Letting my recency bias talk out loud, Nine Sols is perfect for me. It has the visuals, it has good story that it's elevated by the storytelling. Every dialog giving you clue of what happened, where you are, what has happened in this place. A 5-Phrase look on memories of bosses makes you empathetic with the path they had in life. The pitch-perfect parry system adapted from Sekiro to a 2D game, the progression, the quality of life features. It's that good. It's just reward so much the player for learning it's systems. And similar to Rollerdrome and other Souls games, it actually demands that you learn it - allowing you to take appropriated challenges as you progress through the game and hone your reflexes. The latter half had bosses that I will remember for a long time, especially the final boss and the one whoch copies a really famous fight from Hollow Knight. Enjoyed every minute of it.

I already made a collection (which is featured on my profile at the moment) of my 10 favourite games that I experienced in 2024, but that one included Hearts of Iron IV which I played in multiplayer and very much not completed. These are my 10 favourite games that I first cleared in 2024, with limiting it to one game per franchise to avoid unnecessary repetition.

10. Mega Man 2 - 6h 6m
This is additionally basically shared with Mega Man 4, since those two were the games I enjoyed the most out of the 4 first Mega Man games that I managed to clear this year. Mega Man 4 has the advantage of the different Rush devices, the dash and the charged shot, but I found that Mega Man 2 might have been more consistent in terms of level design. The game is indeed easily broken by the Metal Blade, but you can simply decide to not use it if you want to give yourself a tougher challenge. Mega Man 2 is in general just a classic, it's a beloved retro platformer for a reason and it still defines the series in many ways.

9. Untitled Goose Game - 3h 26m
A late December surprise was to finally be able to play this game through my cousin's PlayStation 5. Just as fun as imagined it being from the footage I had seen, very fun to interact as the annoying goose and figure out how to go about achieving the different missions you are awarded with. Really wish I could have played this on my own system and gone for the Platinum Trophy.

8. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 8h 15m
Another absolute classic, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 improves massively on its predecessor by introducing the spin dash and simply having the consistently good level design that the first game was lacking. No levels that completely kill the pacing of the game, all the levels in the game features the ability to move fast which is simply what Sonic fits best, but obviously I still prefer some levels to others. I did not really enjoy what I felt was the punishing special stages of Sonic 1, so the halfpipes were a huge improvement to me. I struggled initially, but they were quite fun once I got good at it, though I do wish they awarded extra life cause that became an issue unlike in the first game. Very much think I will end up being a Sonic fan after I have experienced more games, hoping to go through some, if not all, of CD, 3 & Knuckles, Adventure and Adventure 2 in 2025.

7. Mario Kart DS - 17h 58m
The Mario Kart game I was always aware of but never had the chance to really play, until this year where I got quite into it. This is the oldest Mario Kart game that I felt controlled really to my liking, though Double Dash!! wasn't bad by any means. I just adapted to this game faster than the previous 4 and started having fun on the tracks. Speaking of the tracks, the new ones were most excellent with standouts like Waluigi Pinball, Tick-Tock Clock and Airship Fortress. Very cool that this game brought Retro Tracks into the series, though they did leave a lot to be desired here unfortunately. Mission Mode is still fully unique to DS and going through that for the first time was really cool, that's why my playtime is so high because I spent many hours trying to get 3 stars on the different missions. A lot of variety in terms of them, even including some bosses, so that gives DS a lot of value that makes it unique from the entries before and after it.

6. Mario Party 2 - 10h 13m
Another Mario spinoff series that I got really into in 2024, with Mario Party especially being one I had not played very much of. Had a ton of fun playing through the first two titles with friends. Mario Party 1 was quite rough however, with boards that were pretty universally not very good and a mixed selection of minigames which included the terrible stick-rotating ones. The sequel sorted most of that out and made it a much more fun experience, better boards, better minigames and items made this a very fun multiplayer experience with friends. Was also great that it was possible to unlock the final board, therefore clearing the game, without having to grind with CPUs for hours unlike the first game.

5. Banjo-Kazooie 27h 15m
The most iconic of Rare platformers and it was indeed as charming and enjoyable as I expected. I had already played Yooka-Laylee before playing this, a game that I found lacking and it is clear that the game that inspired it definitely handled things much better. Gruntilda's Lair is a fantastic hub that hosts 10 levels that were generally very well designed with great objectives to obtain the different Jiggies. A lot of my long completion time was spent looking for some particular hidden ones, some which I had to google I admit, and struggling with the music note collecting which was a fairly mixed bag to me. The characters inhabiting the world are obviously very charming and memorable, with the main duo being a fantastic one. This game I actually already replayed the month I beat it, due to me wanting to get a chance to obtain the missable Mumbo Token that I missed on my first playthrough and I did in general have a fantastic time going through it again and will definitely do another playthrough in the future.

4. Resident Evil (2002) - 24h 10m
My first ever venture in the survival horror genre ended up being a game I really ended up liking. Resident Evil is obviously very much horror, but it equally combines level design similar to a metroidvania, general exploration and puzzles to figure out how to progress and I was mostly very into those things. The survival horror elements of dealing with zombies and gathering resources is also something that this game handled very well, another game I would love to go back to in order to improve on my performance. One reason for this is the remaster making "Easy" come across as the "Normal" difficulty when starting so I played it on a easier difficulty than I wish I had, though I am sure it did not affect much and I will also go back and play it on harder difficulties. Learning about the secrets of the mansion throughout the game was also very intriguing, with the 2002 version being more serious but still very much being goofy especially at the very end. This game hooked me on the formula and I am really looking forward to playing the later games.

3. Paper Mario - 39h 37m
I already wrote quite substantially about this game on the game's "Game of the Month" page so I will simply summarise the game as being an excellent Mario RPG with a charming world, great cast of characters and very enjoyable battle mechanics. Was very much a game for me and I enjoyed what the game had behind the corner every step of the journey.

2. Dark Souls III - 47h 56m
Quite surprising in hindsight that I took such a long break from playing the Souls games, I achieved the Dark Souls Remastered platinum in late 2020 and for some reason decided to not play any Souls title again until 2024. Replayed all the previous Souls games, excluding Demon's Souls but including Bloodborne, which included getting the Platinum Trophy in Dark Souls II so I was very much ready to dive into Dark Souls III and I obviously enjoyed it. Definitely would describe the game as a combination of Bloodborne and the previous Dark Souls titles, which mixes really well and Dark Souls III managed to deliver amazing new areas and bosses, the latter being the big highlight of the game for me. Did feel a bit derivative of the previous games, but that really is not a big issue and Dark Souls III ended up being a game I loved even though I believe I prefer both the first Dark Souls and Bloodborne to it. Did a brand new playthrough and managed to achieve the Platinum Trophy just a month after first beating it in July and is looking forward to finally experiencing the remaining Fromsoftare titles.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 358h 21m
Considering the amount of hours I spent on this game, I would have been odd for it to not be on the top spot I felt. But yeah, completing this was a massive journey that dominated several months of my life and I can't say that I really regret that. I finally replayed Breath of the Wild last year and got 100% in it and felt that I really did fall in love with it, the new Zelda formula really did end up clicking with me (even though I might still be partial to the old one). Tears of the Kingdom very much is just expanding on that even more, with the same overworld filled with even more to do alongside Sky Islands and the Depths which meaned to so much more to explore and find. The new abilities you received were so creative too, had a ton of fun with them even though I didn't even do 1% of what a lot of people I have seen accomplished with them. Many people have mixed feelings on the story, which I am included in some ways, but it did primarily land for me and the ending was one of the most amazing ones I have experienced in a Zelda game which lead to a real emotion gutpunch. Collecting everything was a huge journey, obviously filling up the map was a massive part of that but upgrading clothes, taking pictures and clearing all the side quests also played huge parts. The dungeons also felt like a step forward compared to Breath of the Wild, the events leading to them were really great and solving them were mostly fun too. In the end, I am just very satisfied that I managed to achieve 100% Tears of the Kingdom cause that is by far the craziest achievment in terms of investment I have ever put in a game. Not something I want to repeat anytime soon, but I am happy I did it and was able to just be completely absorbed into this fantastic game.

Honorable Mention - Pandemonium! (SAT), Maerchen Adventure Cotton 100% (SNES), G-Darius (PSX), Gunbird (SAT) all very good games but now onto

Top 10 Games Completed in 2024

10. Love & Destroy (PSX) - Unique experience of combining beautifully animated cut-scenes with large mecha which plays out essentially as a boss rush. Choosing one of the three pilots with their own mobile suit units that play distinctly from each other. Creative enemies, bosses, story, with multiple story routes to unlock new scenes. Only issue is that it was on the shorter side and the gameplay doesn't offer much other than destroying the presented boss with a few scattered enemies.

9. Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (NES) - I came in with zero expectations but the solid gameplay surprised me. Besides being an early 2D platform game it features bubble ability in a platform game that makes it stands out from the rest. Cute colorful graphics, stages, characters, enemies, bosses only Konami can deliver.

8. Gimmick! (NES) - Finally played this physics gem! One of the few times I decided to go with the Quality-of-Life Mod hack that make the jumping mechanic more forgiving. Another very fun game on the short side, doesn't make it any less fun.

7. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PSX) - Super creative dream world complete with various of creatures and its own language. A 2.5D experience that aged very well navigating the foreground and background paths. At times it reminded me of several other games released the same era but this surpassed them in every way.

6. Magical Pop'n (SNES) - Truly feels like a predecessor to another game on this list- at least being very inspired by. Solid gameplay with large stages that change up as the game progresses.

5. Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams (TCD) - One of the greatest classic horizontal shooters. Perfect blend of magic abilities, with this port playing remarkably well.

4. SonSon II (TG16) - Solid 2D platform exclusive that doesn't get much recognition. Tight gameplay from jumping, attacking, nothing short of excellence by Capcom. But don't let the colorful graphics fool you, it's challenging.

3. NiGHTS into Dreams... (SAT) - Despite playing, owning the domestic version with 3D controller back in '96- I've never finished the game! That all changed this year where I decided to vastly improve my flying after multiple attempts of failing in the past. Wonderful experience from the soundtrack to the credits.

2. Legend of Xanadu: Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu II (TCD) - Decided not to wait for a fan-translation patch to release and give it a shot anyway. Thanks to a helpful guide on GameFAQs I was able to navigate this linear RPG. For a late release it pushes the system to the next generation- glorious sprites, stages, makes for a memorable experience.

1. Silhouette Mirage (SAT) - Another favorite of mine ever since I owned the PlayStation version in '98 I never completed! Again all changed this year. Just when you thought the game was over twists around the corner to take you off guard on what's actually coming next?! I adore everything about this complex 2D platform game especially running on Sega Saturn since the shop prices are now reasonable (Working Designs adjusted the NA release to increase the difficulty) this is a 10/10 game for me.

10. Borderlands 2 : Best in the franchise.

09. South Park: The Stick of truth : Hilarious with some surprisingly well thought out game mechanics.

08. Psychonauts : Very unique and quirky game.

07. Portal 2 : A fun experience, both the single player and coop.

06. Doom(2016) / Doom Eternal : Couldn't decide which one is better so included both.

05. Banjo-Kazooie: Honestly I wasn't even that interested in this series and just played it on a whim(on N64 Nintendo Switch Online emulator). Ended up loving every second of it.

04. Legend of Zelda TOTK : This was definitely the longest game I've played in 2024

03. Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask : As much as I enjoyed Totk, there was something about the atmosphere and the whole time-loop mechanic that just makes it so special.

02. Hollow Knight : Probably the best metroidvania I've played so far.

01. Half life 2 : Truly a timeless Masterpiece

Top 10 games I played this year are, in rough order (i.e., some of these could shuffle) [drumroll]:

10. Yakuza 0 - My first Yakuza game since the PS2. A strong, cinematic story and balance between serious and humorous tones, in a wonderfully realized urban Japanese setting, make this an easy choice.
9. Cocoon - Creative, masterfully designed puzzle game. Puzzles within puzzles within puzzles. Never played anything quite like it.
8. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Epic game with jaw-dropping environmental scale. Challenging, varied combat, great story, always something new and exciting to stumble upon when exploring.
7. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - Incredible survival horror game.
6. Detroit: Become Human - Impressive and complex branching storyline, ethical themes and decision-making, interconnected characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this (even if some of the plot is nonsensical). Thought-provoking.
5. Paradise Killer - Very unique detective game / visual novel with a cool story.
4. Dave the Diver - Clever, charming, funny, surprising mashup of a restaurant management sim and an exploration/roguelike game (plus other genres for good measure). Amazing attention to detail, and I loved the little cut scenes.
3. Neon White - Speedrunning game with impeccable movement.
2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - One of the best stealth-action sandboxes ever. Tons to do, lots of interrelated systems. Very playful game.
1. Disco Elysium - Oh my gosh, the writing. I loved this so much. Approach as an interactive novel. Absolutely the #1 spot on my list in 2024.

Some honorable mentions that could have been on this list on a different day, or might be on my list if I expanded it to 15, include: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End; Journey; Wandersong; Creaks; Senua's Saga: Hellblade II; Still Wakes the Deep; Children of Morta; and The Pale Beyond.

+11. Trepang2

A very fast-paced shooter inspired by F.E.A.R.. It might be a bit too fast, even, at the beginning, but once you get used to its speed, it’s quite an engaging experience. The gunplay and movement are great, the story and horror elements are decent too. It’s a blast to play.

10. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2

Space battles in the Warhammer: 40k universe? What more you could ask for? It improved just about everything from the first game, or so I assume because I barely remember anything about its predecessor. I won’t forget this one though, this one was really well done. They introduced some light empire management to bring in some variety and the grand space battles are really fun.

9. System Shock (Remaster)

A bit more combat-focused than I would like from an immersive sim, but considering that it’s among the first of its kind I can overlook that. It is a very competently put-together game with excellent exploration mechanics. The game truly expects you to pay attention to what you’re supposed to be doing, and expects you to figure out how.

8. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

I always loved the gameplay of Fire Emblem games, but the stories of the previous episodes were all rather underwhelming. Expect now, the stellar gameplay is accompanied by a similarly strong story. Finally, in my eyes, the series lived up to its fame.

7. Ghost of Tsushima

A very smooth and very cinematic samurai story with excellent presentation. The open-world map littered with icons to clear gets a bit tiring after a while, but the activities themselves are pretty nice for the most part. The combat is slick and smooth, offers just the right amount of challenge (for a generally not-too-difficult triple-A action experience), and looks really cool. The game feels more style than substance but what is there is a very enjoyable experience.

6. Merchant of the Skies

It’s a simple little management game. I can’t say I’m all that well-versed in the genre, but this game had its hooks in me. It’s not that complex, not that difficult, and not that long of a game, but everything comes together in it perfectly. It’s quite a cozy experience, even.

5. Necromunda: Hired Gun

It’s a fast-paced FPS game set in the Warhammer: 40k universe, although not one of its more well-known corners, there won’t be Orks and Space Marines here, still, the universe will be recognizable in many ways. The story is a mess, and the game is quite janky due to its lower-budgeted nature, but who cares, when the shooting is this fun. Because the shooting and gunplay, coupled with the extreme freedom of movement make playing the game stupidly fun.

4. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

It’s more Cyberpunk 2077. That’s all you really need. The game delivers more of that excellence that you fell in love with in the base game. Except, since this is an expansion, the limited scope means this is a more curated serving with fewer of those samey side activities. The stories and the characters are great and Night City is still one hell of a place to experience.

3. Total War: Warhammer 3

At this point you probably know what you’re going to get, it’s mostly the same thing as the previous two except even more refined and even more varied. If you loved what the previous games had to offer, then the third game is just as addicting. Yeah, you probably should invest in the DLCs, because those are the ones that really complete the experience, but Total War: Warhammer 3 is the best that this experience so far offered.

2. Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2

The first game was honestly fairly forgettable, but not his one, this one is incredibly fun. They refined the combat to make it really satisfying, and made the plot, though nothing special, maximally deliver on the kind of pathos, that only 40k can deliver. It’s power fantasy turned up to eleven, an experience that constantly delivers set pieces that are cool as hell while injecting adrenaline straight into your veins.

1. No Truce with the Furies

Although I liked this title more, Disco Elysium is my undisputed number one in 2024. It’s a combat-less CRPG that relies entirely on the strength of its writing. And it delivers! The way this game is written, how your character build interacts, and narrates your game is simply amazing. Just listening and reading the game’s dialogue is extremely engaging. The game is a masterpiece that everyone owes it to themselves to try.